It was a dark bright and stormy sunny night day, so I opened the door to the Finsterium, and took a lot of pictures a few weeks ago. (Again, really: where does the time go?) I now have some pretty alarming examples of the results of aggressive allo-preening in birds. But first, a very pretty photograph of (probably) Cinnamon (half inside the box) and Ginger (on the porch), taken in March of 2005. This is the Before picture.

You will notice that while she has some feather damage around her neck, for the most part Ginger has very pretty feathers. If you look carefully, you can even see the little cowlick on the top of her head. Such a pretty bird!

Well, those days are long gone. Here she is now.

Note that while the feather damage from the 2005 photograph was probably self-inflicted, Ginger's naked neck and "chin" have been plucked by another bird or birds. And that pretty little cowlick? Gone. But really, wouldn't you rather remember her from a couple of years ago? So I'll let you pop up the photos of the top of her head. In this photo she is tilting her head, so you can see the furrow plucked from the top of her head. In this photo, she's preening her own chest, and her head is tilted straight down. Really, both of these photos show a bit more detail than anyone needs. Pop, baby!

Ginger was pretty calm while I was taking these photographs. In fact, she even hopped a little closer to me while I was taking them. Probably because she senses that if she hopped into my hand, I would give her Warm Toasties — I wouldn't pluck her tiny little head bald.

The worst part is that she's lost even more feathers from the back of her head since I took these photos on February 13. Stop picking on Ginger, you naughty Finsters!